Durban - If you fancy buying Moses Mabhida Stadium or the Umgeni River Bird Park, or enjoying a bunny chow or taking a ricksha ride – you can do all of this and more in the comfort of home with the new Durban Monopoly board game.
Launched at The Pavilion Shopping Centre on Thursday and described as the “fast-dealing property trading game", the Durban edition of the game highlights the city's landmarks from uShaka Marine World, the Juma Masjid Mosque, Greyville Racecourse, Valley of 1000 Hills and Florida Road.
London-based Monopoly development executive Robert Osborne said Durban had got the nod ahead of Johannesburg. Since the announcement of the new Durban edition in May, he and his team had carried out extensive research, on the streets of the city and online, on landmarks for Durbanites.
A Cape Town edition of the game was launched two years ago and, according to Osborne, proved to be extremely popular.
“After all our research in Durban, we had enough material to do two or three boards and it was very difficult cutting it down to 22 squares. We were trying to get a true representation for the people in Durban,” said Osborne who travelled here a number of times during the design of the board.
Unlike the South African version of the game in the 1980s, which featured only one side of the board with Durban streets such as Musgrave Road and Gillespie Street, the new game features all Durban destinations. The board retains the original Go To Jail, Free Parking, Durban Station and Super Tax, so there is still that sense of familiarity with the well-known game.
Osborne said: “The new board is image based and the game is played in the same way."
The orange set focuses on shopping such as The Pavilion; the pink holds all the sports destinations such as Kingsmead Cricket Stadium; the brown features heritage sites such as the Durban Mosque; the green set focuses on nature and heritage, for example the Botanic Gardens; light blue shows off our culture and leisure sites such as African Art Centre; red is tourism based, including the Durban ICC; while the dark blue set features iconic locations such as the Moses Mabhida Stadium.
According to Osborne, statistics have shown that orange is the most landed on colour set while whoever can snap up red and orange while playing the game, tends to win the game – a useful tip for those who don't like to lose.
The board game originally started with the streets and tourist attractions of London Twenty years ago, regional versions started to be produced. Launching games in cities across the world, Osborne was in Tokyo and Doha last week and will be in Germany next week.
And of course Durban is the first city where the Durban edition became available this week. It will be launched in London on Monday. Osborne said the next edition may only appear in another 20 years time.
The retail price is R560 and the game is available at CNA, Exclusive Books, Musica, Toy Kingdom, Toy Zone and Typo, while online stories include Loot and Take-A-Lot.
The Independent on Saturday
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The Independent on Saturday is giving two lucky readers the new Durban Edition Monopoly game. To stand a chance of winning, SMS TIOSMonopoly followed by your name and surname to 33258 by 2pm on Monday. SMSes charged at R1.50. Terms and conditions apply.